Sometimes teams need a bit of luck to win a game.
Luck was definitely on the Cardinals’ side from the very beginning of Saturday’s game, a 2-1 win over the Marlins, and continued to stay with them throughout the night.
The play-by-play for the game says that Rafael Furcal led off the game with a single — even though only the umpires saw it that way. Even Dan McLaughlin called it as a sliding catch by Mike Stanton when the play happened live. The first base ump called it a hit, the rest of the umps gathered to review, replays showed it was a hit … and the decision of base hit stood.
And when Albert launched a bomb into the left-field stands with Furcal at first, it luckily ended up being the difference in the game. It was homer No. 26 for Albert, which ties him for second in the National League. (Slow start? What was that??)
Not that the Cards didn’t have their chances to improve on that score. Except for the fifth, they had at least one base runner in every inning — 14 hits, one walk and two errors. Obviously, they did not capitalize on any of that. Chris Carpenter struck out twice bunting the ball foul. Of course they hit into double plays — thank you, Rafael Furcal, for playing like a Cardinal!
Then there was the strange play in the top of the ninth. Matt Holliday singled with two outs, bringing up Lance Berkman. He launched a long fly deep to right that bounced off the top of the wall. Holliday raced around from first — “I was running my little heart out,” he said — and he made it home. However, instead of throwing the ball there, Stanton threw to second base and surprised all of us, including LB.
Berkman said he was stunned that Stanton didn’t throw home. “I didn’t understand why the ball was coming to second base,” Berkman said. “As soon as I realized that it was, I thought, ‘Stop! Don’t let anyone tag me.’ Then my feet came out from under me and it was over with.
“It was the wrong place to throw the ball, but it worked out perfectly.”
Pitching-wise, CC had a great night despite once more having one bad inning. And some luck was involved in getting out of that as well. After allowing the Marlins to load the bases via two walks and a single with only one out, CC hit Dewayne Wise to score the Marlins only run of the game. That brought up pitcher Ricky Nolasco, who grounded it to Albert at first. He threw home for the first out, then Tony Cruz threw to Skip Schumaker covering first for the double play.
CC struck out seven, allowed five hits, and wore at least three different jerseys and shirts underneath. (It helps the count when his shirts are different colors — red to black to red again.) He pitched 6 2/3 innings, followed by Octavio Dotel, Jason Motte and Marc Rzepczynski. Only Motte allowed a hit.
Fernando Salas pitched the ninth, walking one but nailing down his 21st save for the lucky win.
And, given the amount of bad luck the Cards have run into this season, it’s nice to have a night when all the breaks went their way.
Christine Coleman is the senior St. Louis Cardinals reporter for Aaron Miles’ Fastball. Follow her on Twitter, @CColeman802, or email aaronmilesfastball@gmail.com. Also follow @AMilesFastball for the latest updates.
